This morning we helped the recently launched South Norwood Country Park

Early this morning we headed over to the beautiful South Norwood Country Park to help at the local parkrun. This was only its 11th run and needed a little help with volunteer numbers. These runs can only happen when enough people help out with the many tasks needed to ensure a fun and safe event. So if you do enjoy taking part don’t forget to take your turn!

Six of us met up with Jules who was Run Director for the first time and we were issued our attractive luminous yellow bibs and allocated tasks which included setting up the course and keeping our fingers crossed that we didn’t get the directions wrong and turn it into a 10k! We also marshaled and joined the tail runner for some of the last lap. Heather and Swazi also managed to squeeze in the run too! Special mention has to go to Jules for her amazing piece of poetry – who knew a safety briefing could be done in rhyme!

After all the runners were back safely we regrouped and the consensus was that since some had joined in parkrun a fitness session wasn’t needed we had a chat about GoodGym and all the ways to get involved – so hopefully some new Tuesday evening runners and Mission and Coach runners too.

The Starter sessions are to introduce new runners to GoodGym and give them a chance to see what we do and also to tell them about Coach run and Missions. So we were happy to welcome Heather and Swazi to the GoodGym crew where they were able to chat to the regular runners – it was great to meet you all and hope to see you again soon.

This Tuesday’s run will be to Birdhurst Community Gardens – so sign up here

We’ve also got another two Starter sessions this month. Hopefully one next Sunday although it’s to be confirmed and a definite run on Saturday 30th of September.

We returned to the place it all began this week, running the 2km to Long Lane Pasture to shovel some compost. We were actually shifting the piles of compost that we created last summer, when we piled up all that cut grass and hay. I did not realise how long it takes for compost to become compost!

We started with a quick intro at the cinema where we all met Luke – give him a cheer for his very first run with us!

With many GG Barnet runners still in Riga, it was great to see we still had such a wonderful turnout for the task at hand. We started off with a gentle jog down to Cherry Tree Wood to warm up on the grass before Heather lead the team towards Long Lane Pasture. Amanda missed Hazel and her portable speaker, telling me running without the GG Barnet playlist just wasn't the same! You can add tracks to the GG Barnet Tunes playlist here.

We arrived at Long Lane Pasture in about 20 minutes – our longest run in weeks! The Pasture team greeted us and showed us our task. Nicola did a wonderful job raking the pathways of catepillars (not real catepillars), which fall from the trees and kill the grass. Luke and Lilian both took a few scratches from the brambles and I was very impressed (and also a little worried) with Amanda's commitment to getting a good team photo at the end. We do have the best photos in Barnet.

We finished up with a running game around a big ring path, before heading back to base.

This week's Barnet Biscuit was homemade cloud cookies and ginger & cinnamon biscuits courtesy of Joanna

I don't know if 'cloud cookie' is the actual name, but Louis and I both agreed that's what it was like eating.

Join us next week for our VERY LAST EVER run to Hammerson Nightingale care home on the Bishops Ave. We will be packing up the library. The home is being knocked down, so this will be our goodbye GoodGym good deed. It's 1km each way.

These are the missions I mentioned today:

Saturday

Allotments in Harringey

Night of 1000 PBs NW5

Sunday

Animal Home NW10

Creos N10

Clear Ms P's Patio N4

Tom, Bryon and Lucy met on a sunny Saturday morning to help Ms N get ready for some building work. The task was to clear a room which had become something of a storage area. While chatting with Ms N the trio ran upstairs and down into the cellar with boxes, bags, bathroom fittings and a kitchen worktop. Mission accomplished, we said our farewells and headed off to enjoy the sunshine.